Illinois Fruit and Vegetable News:

A Newsletter for Commercial Growers of Fruit and Vegetable Crops
A Publication of University of Illinois Extension and the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences

Vol. 10 , No. 17, October 1, 2004

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"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." --Aristotle

Address any questions or comments regarding this newsletter to the individual authors listed after each article or to its editor, Rick Weinzierl, 217-333-6651, weinzier@uiuc.edu. To receive email notification of new postings of this newsletter, call or write the same number or address.

This issue's words of wisdom ... which usually means the jokes ... are at the end of newsletter ... check the last page.

In This Issue:

Crop and Regional Reports (from Elizabeth Wahle and Maurice Ogutu)

Upcoming Meetings (IL-IA Fruit and Vegetable Growers Conference, December 2; Illinois Specialty Crops Conference and pre-conference pumpkin workshop, January 20-22)

Vegetable Production and Pest Management (California regulation on hand-weeding)

Fruit Production and Pest Management (Cork spot survey)

University of Illinois Extension Specialists in Fruit & Vegetable Production & Pest Management

Crop and Regional Reports

In the south and southwest, the end of September was characterized by picture-perfect days, with no sign of rain in sight. With no significant rain since August 25, much of the landscape has started to show signs of drought stress.

As a follow-up to Chris Doll's comments in the last IFVN, the Illinois Cider and Hard Cider Contest will again be held at the Illinois Specialty Crops Conference in Springfield, January 20 -22, 2005, and will be hosted by the Illinois State Horticulture Society. One gallon of product is required for the judging contest. Registration for all cider contests will be on January 21st, from 8:00-9:45am. Judging will commence at 10:00am. For more information, please contact me at the phone number or email address below.

In order to develop more complete apple variety profiles for Illinois growing conditions, I would like to collect information from Illinois growers on which apple varieties are most susceptible to cork spot. I have provided a form ("Survey of Apple Varieties' Susceptibility to Cork Spot in Illinois", PDF File) for you to use to record your observations. If you are an apple grower in Illinois (or even near Illinois), please take a few minutes to download, print, and complete it, and then mail it to me at the address provided. If you prefer, you are welcome to contact me via phone or email to report your observations.

Elizabeth Wahle (618-692-9434; wahle@uiuc.edu)

In northern Illinois, day temperatures remained in the 70s to 80s and night temperatures in the upper 40s to 50s during the last two weeks of September. I received a report on the morning of September 29 of frost occurring during the night before in the Rockford area. It has been a very dry month, as most locations in the region received 0.20 to 1 inch of rainfall between September 15 and 28, and that occurred mainly on September 15.

Apple scab, sooty blotch, and fly speck have been reported from some orchards, as picking of Cortland, Spartan, Jonathan, Golden Delicious, Liberty, Empire, Red Delicious, Honeycrisp, and Fuji is going on. Fall varieties will be ready for picking in early October. In some orchards, all the apples have been picked, and a wide variety is available for purchase at farm markets. Harvest of fall-bearing raspberries and grapes also is continuing, and pumpkin harvest is well underway on most farms. A few reports on fruit rot, cucumber beetles, and squash bug nymphs feeding on pumpkin fruits have continued to come in during the last couple of weeks.

Maurice Ogutu (708-352-0109; ogutu@uiuc.edu)

Upcoming Meetings and Programs

Illinois-Iowa Fruit and Vegetable Growers Conference, December 2, 2004

The Illinois-Iowa Fruit and Vegetable Growers Conference is scheduled for 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. on December 2, 2004, at the Quad Cities Botanic Center. Mark your calendar now, and expect to see more details in a few weeks in this newsletter. For more information, contact Martha Smith, Horticulture Educator at the University of Illinois Extension Center in Macomb.

Martha Smith (309-836-2363; smithma@uiuc.edu)

Illinois Specialty Crops Conference and Pre-Conference Pumpkin Workshop, January 20-22, 2005

Later this month or in November we'll publish a list of all the dates for winter fruit and vegetable conferences, but THE statewide program for Illinois fruit, vegetable, and herb growers is the Illinois Specialty Crops Conference. The 2005 conference will be held Friday and Saturday, January 21-22, at the Crowne Plaza in Springfield, Illinois. On January 20, 2005, a pre-conference workshop on pumpkin production will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. at the same location. Be sure to check later issues of this newsletter and the Illinois Specialty Growers Association web site (http://www.specialtygrowers.org/) for more information. Be sure to note the call for entries for the apple cider and hard cider contest in Elizabeth Wahle's crop report on the first page of this issue.

Rick Weinzierl (217-333-6651; weinzier@uiuc.edu)

Vegetable Production and Pest Management

California Outlaws Hand-Weeding

On Thursday September 23, 2004, the California Occupational Safety and Health Standard Board (Cal OSHA) approved a temporary regulation banning hand weeding on most farms. In 1975, California banned the use of short-handle hoes for weeding. However, advocates for farm workers were concerned that the old regulation prevented the use of the short-handled hoe but it did not prohibit farm workers from hand weeding. In 1993, the state's Occupational Health and Safety office reported that prolonged hand-weeding caused the same back injury associated with the short-handled hoe. Advocates and farmers have been negotiating for the last two years on a compromise. Under the new rule, farm workers will not be required to stoop to pull weeds, but instead they can use long-handled tools that will allow them to work without bending over. Exempted from this regulation are organic growers or growers that can prove that there are no alternatives to hand weeding. If workers are required to hand weed, then they are entitled to longer breaks and are limited in how many hours they can spend hand weeding. The rule will take effect in two weeks and will be in place for 120 days. A permanent standard is expected in one year. Reaction of growers to the new rule is mixed. Some growers like Dick Peixoto, a Pajaro Valley organic grower, are pleased that organic growers are exempt, but they questioned whether the new rule is in the best interest of California Agriculture. Other growers are not as happy. Ed Ortega, President of Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau, called the rule "junk legislation made by bureaucrats in cubicles who have no idea what's going on in lettuce fields." It will be interesting to see if this rule will find its way to other states and if it will result in an increase in herbicide use.

Mosbah Kushad (217-244-5691; kushad@uiuc.edu)

Fruit Production and Pest Management

As I noted above in the southwestern Illinois crop report, I would like to establish more complete apple variety profiles for Illinois growing conditions. As a step in doing this, I would like to collect information from Illinois growers on which apple varieties are most susceptible to cork spot. If you are an apple grower in Illinois (or even near Illinois), please take a few minutes to download, print, and complete the "Survey of Apple Varieties' Susceptibility to Cork Spot in Illinois" form (PDF File), then mail it to me at the address provided. If you prefer, you are welcome to contact me via phone or email to report your observations. I'll report on the results of this survey at the Illinois Specialty Crops Conference in January, and in the same session Mosbah Kushad will discuss the reasons for and the management of physiological disorders such as cork spot.

Elizabeth Wahle (618-692-9434; wahle@uiuc.edu)

University of Illinois Extension Specialists in Fruit and Vegetable Production & Pest Management

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